The Richest Farmland in the History of Man: Grassroots Reclamation of Water in the Central Valley: 1940-1980

ABSTRACT THE RICHEST FARMLAND IN THE HISTORY OF MAN: GRASSROOTS RECLAMATION OF WATER IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY: 1940-1980 Starting in the early 1940s and culminating in the late 1970s, organized groups of concerned citizens fought—both politically, and socially to maintain the legality a turn-of-the-century law called the Reclamation Law. The Reclamation Law from 1902 stipulated farmers who owned more than 160 acres would not be entitled to receive federal water. This law was highly controversial in the Central Valley of California. In the Valley there would be numerous and repeated attempts by various interests to overturn or amend the law, yet despite this, small activist groups pushed back their efforts. Due to the grassroots organization of these political and social activists, efforts to amend or abolish the law would be unsuccessful for nearly four decades. Their sustained, consistent, informed, and passionate effort would prevent the Reclamation Law from being amended or overturned until the early 1980s. Toini Jane Hiipakka August 2016 THE RICHEST FARMLAND IN THE HISTORY OF MAN: GRASSROOTS RECLAMATION OF WATER IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY: 1940-1980 by Toini Jane Hiipakka A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History in the College of Social Sciences California State University, Fresno August 2016 © 2016 Toini Jane Hiipakka APPROVED For the Department of History: We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree. Toini Jane Hiipakka Thesis Author Ethan J. Kytle (Chair) History Maritere Lopez History Thomas Holyoke Political Science For the University Graduate Committee: Dean, Division of Graduate Studies AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER’S THESIS X I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in its entirety without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of authorship. Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must be obtained from me. Signature of thesis author: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my grandparents, Michael and Virginia Yturaldi who grew up working in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley—who taught me to value hard work and struggle, and who always pushed me to go further in my education. I would also like to thank my committee member, Dr. Thomas Holyoke, for providing me with precise direction, as well as his knowledge and expertise on local water history. His generosity of time and spirit were invaluable to me, and this project would not be as nearly as complete without his influence. Thank you also to Dr. Maritere Lopez, for her superb constructive feedback and generosity of time. Her extensive advice not only helped this project, but helped to make me a better writer. I would like to also thank Dr. Daniel Cady, who continues to illuminate both the past and the classroom with his insight, intelligence and candor. He is one who challenges us to uncover the truth, and to use it purposefully. I would also like to thank Dr. Lori Clune, who was more than simply a memorable teacher, and mentor for most of my career at Fresno State. Her personal support and encouragement in the variety of endeavors I have pursued at the university has proven to be indispensible. And at last, a special thank you to all those “community historians” in Fresno who have talked with me at length about water, agriculture, and labor. Fresno is rich in both history and community, exceptional qualities. This project is dedicated to those who continue to fight for equality within the fields of the San Joaquin—and especially dedicated to the memory of Paul S. Taylor and George “Elfie” Ballis. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1 Historiography ................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 2: EARLY RESISTANCE 1940-1950 ................................................ 19 Events .............................................................................................................. 24 People and Organizations ................................................................................ 33 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 3: WESTLANDS AND THE 1960s ................................................... 55 The San Luis Reservoir ................................................................................... 56 Activism .......................................................................................................... 58 Land Break-up ................................................................................................. 60 1975 Congressional Testimony ....................................................................... 63 National Land for the People, Inc. v. Bureau of Reclamation ........................ 66 Activists and Small Farmers ........................................................................... 67 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 72 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 75 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Within California’s Central Valley, water has played a pivotal role, serving to generate and energize social and grassroots organizing throughout the twentieth century. Many social and political activists throughout California diligently and successfully fought for economic and social equality, and they did so through the federally allocated resource of water. Therefore, water has come to define the economy, becoming a key player in political relationships, and has carved out communities and ways of life which have had historic and long lasting consequences. Water development has come to shape people’s relationship to the land, not simply in the way people work, but in how they survive. Water is the thread holding together the Central Valley’s great patchwork of diversity, a resource which remains as precious as it is consequential. The struggles of agricultural labor throughout the Central Valley of California have been well documented and discussed. Such examples include John Steinbeck’s fictional account of the struggles endured by the Joad family in the Grapes of Wrath, and the activism of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.1 Although these are well known, there are other, smaller, and lesser known stories which demonstrate the hard fight to maintain democracy, fairness, and justice throughout the Southern portion of the Central Valley: the San Joaquin Valley. In 1975, National Land for People (NLP), a Fresno-based grassroots activist organization, sent representatives to Washington D.C. to testify on the lack of federal concern in the Westlands Water District, a water district of nearly 1 John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath (United States of America: Stratford Press, 1939). 2 2 600,000 acres within the heart of California’s San Joaquin. George Ballis, Director of NLP offered this statement to the committee: I suppose we have the same feeling as the founding fathers of our country had, and so we begin to think of ourselves as a liberation movement in the true spirit of the American Revolution […] Our cause is just, the usurpations we have suffered are great and we are a part of a great new spirit in the country—a new spirit which is in fact a reaffirmation of the American ethic of individual liberty, free enterprise and community cooperation.2 At its surface, the history of water development in California might not seem to elicit much in the way of passionate community activism or grassroots organizing. The intricate series of canals and dams were merely conduits for water transportation, providing the arid California Valley with the water it so desperately needed in order to become agriculturally and economically viable. And according to historian Norris Hundley, a desire to develop and irrigate California into an “agricultural paradise” has existed since the days of the gold rush. Experts throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had determined that if California was to prosper with any sort of sustained productivity, the Valley would, “require major manipulation of the state’s waterscape.”3 Not only was California arid, but it would become increasingly dry as the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth. The desire of large growers for an irrigated Central Valley became more of a reality near the turn of the century. Politicians and agricultural growers would begin to discuss the need for large scale irrigation as droughts became more frequent, and flooding more problematic. However, the desire for large scale 2 George Ballis, to Select Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, United States Senate, July 17 and 22 1975, 94th Congress, First Session on Will The Family Farm Survive in America? Part I: Federal Reclamation Policy (Westlands Water District) 63-64. 3 Norris Hundley, The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, 1770s-1990s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) 232. 3 3 irrigation was not just a twentieth-century passion. Many throughout the United

Load more